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Botox and fillers are very safe, study suggests

Nov. 18, 2014

Cosmetic procedures such as Botox, facial fillers and laser skin treatments are very safe, and have a very low rate of minor side effects, a new study suggests.

These cosmetic procedures can cause minor side effects such as bruising, lumpiness or skin discoloration, but these occur in less than 1 percent of cases, according to the study published today (Nov. 5) in the journal JAMA Dermatology.

“We strongly suspected the rates were going to be low, but we were pleasantly surprised that they were as low as they were,” said study lead author Dr. Murad Alam, a dermatologist at Northwestern University in Illinois. (In past work, Alam has conducted studies that were funded in part by Allergan, Medicis, Ulthera and Bioform, which are companies that sell products for cosmetic procedures.)

However, the study included only dermatologists who routinely perform these procedures, so it’s possible that negative outcomes could be more frequent in the hands of less-experienced providers, said Dr. Michael C. Edwards, the president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. [7 Plastic Surgery Myths Debunked]